THE BIRTHDAY PARTY

The Birthday Party (originally known as The Boys Next Door) were an Australian post-punk band, active from 1978 to 1983. The nucleus of the band first met at the private boy's school Caulfield Grammar School, in suburban Melbourne, in the early seventies. A rock group was formed in 1973, with Nick Cave (vocals), Mick Harvey (guitar), and Phill Calvert (drums), with other students John Cocivera, Brett Purcell and Chris Coyne (on guitar, bass and saxophone respectively). Most were also members of the school choir. The band played under various names at parties and school functions with a mixed repertoire of David Bowie, Lou Reed, Roxy Music, Alice Cooper and the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, among others.

After their final school year in 1975 the band decided to continue as a four-piece group, with friend Tracy Pew picking up the bass. Greatly affected by the punk explosion of 1976 which saw Australian bands The Saints and Radio Birdman making their first recordings and tours, The Boys Next Door, as they were now called, began performing punk and proto-punk cover versions, such as "Blitzkrieg Bop" and "Gloria", and a few original songs. By November 1977 their set was dominated by fast original new wave material, such as "Sex Crimes" and "Masturbation Generation". The Boys' second guitarist, Rowland S. Howard, joined in 1978, and about this time, the group's sound changed dramatically.

The addition of Howard's guitar was certainly a catalyst (his later use of audio feedback being a hallmark of the group) but there were other changes, as well: their sound drew upon punk, rockabilly, free jazz and the rawest blues, but defied concise categorisation. Many songs were driven by prominent, repetitive basslines and frenetic, yet minimalist, drumming. Though the band was tightly rehearsed, the instrumentalists often sounded as if they were on the verge of collapse, this quality only emphasising the newfound mania of Cave's singing, and his expressionist lyrics. In producer/engineer Tony Cohen they found a willing accomplice to their experimentation and their refusal to repeat themselves; and in manager Keith Glass they found an enthusiastic financial backer. Glass' label Missing Link Records released all of the early Birthday Party records.

 The Boys Next Door's best-known song, "Shivers", written by Howard, and first performed and recorded by his band The Young Charlatans, was banned by radio stations because of a reference to suicide. After recordings and moderate success in Australia (including hundreds of live shows) they headed for London in 1980, changed their name to The Birthday Party and launched into a period of innovative and aggressive music-making. Some sources say the band took its new name from the Harold Pinter play The Birthday Party; others (including Ian Johnston's Cave biography) state it was prompted by Cave misremembering, or intentionally misattributing, the name to a non-existent birthday party scene in the lengthy Dostoyevsky novel Crime and Punishment.

 In a 2008 interview Roland S. Howard gave his own recollection: "The name The Birthday Party came up in conversation between Nick and myself. There's this apocryphal story about it coming from a Dostoyevsky novel. It may have had various connotations, but what he and I spoke about was a sense of celebration and making things into more an occasion and ritual". They resided in London, with trips back to Australia and tours through Europe and the U.S. before relocating to West Berlin in 1982. Above the barely controlled racket, Cave's vocals ranged from desperate to simply menacing and demented. Critics have written that "neither John Cale nor Alfred Hitchcock was ever this scary," and that Cave "doesn't so much sing his vocals as expel them from his gut".

Though Cave drew on earlier rock and roll shriekers—especially Iggy Pop and Suicide's Alan Vega—his singing with the Birthday Party remains powerful and distinct. The single "Release the Bats" came out during the emergence of the gothic scene. This song about "vampire sex" was promoted by an advert with the words "Dirtiness is next to antigodliness". Their 1982 album 'Junkyard' was inspired by American Southern Gothic imagery, dealing with extreme subjects like an evangelist's murdered daughter. Certain songs like "She's Hit" have bluesy qualities but the atmosphere was both decrepit and sinister. For the Birthday Party, things had changed. Calvert was ejected in 1982; he was reportedly "unable to nail down the beats for 'Dead Joe' to everyone's satisfaction", and Harvey moved to drums.

When Pew was jailed for drunk driving and petty theft early in 1982, Chris Walsh, Barry Adamson and Howard's brother Harry replaced him for live appearances and brief studio work. Pew rejoined the band in July. The 'Mutiny' EP contained lyrics evoking blasphemy, words which were as dark as the gothic poems of Lautréamont. The title track portrayed a dirty heaven with rats and trash. In 1982 a spin-off group with Lydia Lunch, Honeymoon In Red, recorded an album which was eventually released in 1987. Harvey and Cave were reportedly so unhappy with the mixing and overdubbing done after their involvement that they requested their names be withheld from its liner notes. Howard and Pew apparently had no objections to being credited by name.

A tour in January 1983 found the group return to a five-piece, with Jeffrey Wegener playing drums and Harvey returning to second guitar. Wegener did not remain with the group, however, and they returned to a four-piece soon after. Later this year, Blixa Bargeld from the German band Einstürzende Neubauten played guitar on the track "Mutiny in Heaven". Tension between Cave and Howard soon came to a head, but it was Harvey who first left the group – their final tour saw Des Hefner on drums. The Birthday Party disbanded in late 1983, due in part to the split between Cave and Howard, as well as work and drug-related exhaustion.

Several groups rose from the Birthday Party's ashes: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (featuring Cave, Harvey, Adamson, Bargeld and briefly Pew), Crime and the City Solution (featuring Harvey and Howard, later just Harvey) and These Immortal Souls (featuring Howard). Due in part to their legendary status and to the continuing success of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Birthday Party's back catalogue has been re-released on CD several times. Mick Harvey has overseen releases of rare or previously unissued recordings ("Live" and "John Peel" CDs). Tracy Pew died from injuries caused by an epileptic seizure in 1986. Rowland S. Howard died in 2009.

Members

Nick Cave (vocals, sax), Mick Harvey (guitar, drums, keyboards), Rowland S. Howard (guitar, backing vocals), Tracy Pew (bass), Phillip Calvert (drums), Chris Walsh (bass), Barry Adamson (bass), Harry Howard (bass), Jeffrey Wegener (drums), Des Hefner (drums), Blixa Bargeld (guitar)

SINGLES
''Mr Clarinet / Happy Birthday'' 1980 Missing Link

''Nick The Stripper / Blundertown'' 1982 Missing Link 

ALBUMS
'Prayers On Fire' (#96) 1981 Missing Link 
'Junk Yard' 1982 Missing Link

'It's Still Living' 1985 Missing Link

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birthday_Party_%28band%29